Research Projects

(1) The OPT-PDE Analysis and FRET Imaging Project

(2) Image-driven system biology: Intra-cellular transport and diffusion by finite-element-analysis: The transport process is crucial for the cells to propagate intracellular signals induced by extracellular stimuli. We develop finite-element-based methods for the simulation and analysis of molecular diffusion and transport in live cells. Our finite-element-based diffusion analysis method only requires two consecutive images to estimate a diffusion coefficient, with a great flexibility in resolving complex cellular geometry. Therefore, this can allow the estimation of a spatiotemporal map of diffusion coefficient with high subcellular resolution. Indeed, our results shows a perfect match between the experimental results and the finite element based analysis.

(3) High throughput image analysis software for automatic quantification of molecular activities and statistical inference: Live cell imaging with can reveal spatiotemporal map of molecular localization and activities in real time. With the development of high throughput microscope with automated stage and an array of specific biosensors, image-based analysis quickly become a bottleneck of this field. In this direction, we develop high throughput image analysis software for fluorescence imaging. This allows the automatic quantification of molecular activities and statistical inference on the imaging results with subcellular resolution and high accuracy.
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